Holy Cow!

MOUSY MORNING: For whatever reason, at 7:30 this morning, Annabelle was determined to play Mousetrap. It's a board game with about 200 pieces that you have to assemble to build this rickety, not-well-working mousetrap.

Annabelle was struggling with setting it up, so I suggested CJ help her out. He sauntered over to the table and said, "Now let's see what we have here..." It was nice to see him take charge and solve problems. :)

MAGNOLIA MORNING: While Annabelle was in ballet, CJ and I headed for "hilltop playpark" (Ella Bailey Park) to take Kirby for a walk. We were going to be gone all afternoon at a Mariners matinee, so I wanted the Kirbster to work off some energy. While the dog and I did laps, CJ explored the play equipment. At one point I looked over and he was walking the spinning donut feature like a circus pro. (It's not as easy as you might think.)

Right before it was time to leave, he started to scale a half-rainbow shaped climber. He was fine with the vertical steps, but when it started going lateral at about 6 feet off the ground, CJ went into white knuckle mode. "I'm scared! I'm scared!" he told me, expecting a rescue. Instead, I told him that he could totally do it if we made a mid-air Twister-type game out of it.

He finally agreed, and I gave him, right hand here, left foot here, right foot here-type commands and he knocked it out in about 10 seconds. Then he felt silly for having been afraid of it.

It was funny - a toddler of about 18 months was watching the whole drama unfold and after CJ successfully completed his climb and was back down on the groud, safe, the wee one toddled over and said, in agreement, "Gary! Gary!!!"

After ballet, Annabelle got to spend about 20 minutes in the park playing dolls with her ballet boy friend. He was disappointed when we had to leave, but we had a bus to catch - to the Mariners' game.

ANOTHER ONE RIDES THE BUS: We caught the bus at 11:41 a.m. at the crest of Magnolia. I was really surprised to find it packed - we got the last 3 seats, in the very back of the bus. There were a half dozen other game goers on board, but the rest of the passengers were just headed downtown midday for one reason or the other.

The kids were as excited about the bus ride as they were the game. ;) I had them help me count out our exact change this morning for fares ($2 for me and .75 for CeeJ. Bee was free.) Ironically, for whatever reason, when we got on, as I was dropping our 12 quarters in the slot, the driver waved me off - told me not to pay. I really didn't get that. ...

During our ride to Safco, Annabelle happily chatted up the heavily tattooed and toothless woman next to us in the backseat. :) The bus ride took about 20 minutes longer than scheduled due to gawdawful traffic (something that became a recurring theme of the day, unfortunately).

GAME TIME: We finally got to the stadium and found Christian (who had come straight from work). Our first stop was the playpark in centerfield, but we were to our seats by the top of the first.

We were very fortunate. Our seats were directly under the letter "C" in the Safeco Field sign in left centerfield, so we were shaded from the sun.

Even though it wasn't sweltering today, having the sun beating down on you for THIRTEEN friggin' innings can be a bit much. King Felix (Hernandez) was pitching and he wasn't at his sharpest in the early going but by midgame he was groovin' it, and he finished strong, only to have the bullpen (I'm talking to YOU Sean White) blow it.

And then there's the matter of the Ms' bats, or lack thereof. Clutch hitting wasn't in their vocab today, not even for Ichiro.
Of course, you can't go to the ballpark without partaking of some ballpark food. Today, since it was hot, the kids both had Dippin' Dots ice cream pellets ... And Annabelle (EXTREME CLOSEUP!) enjoyed a refreshing drink. :)
CJ and Annabelle got to be big screen stars for a fleeting moment late in the game when Captain Plastic came to our section and collected items for recycling. They were pretty happy about meeting an eco-superhero.

It was fun seeing the Cubs play in person. Since they're National League, it's about a once a decade occurrence that they're in Seattle to play the Ms. Cubs fans were out in droves. It was damn near a 60-40 split in the stadium of Ms and Cubs fans. That confused the kids a bit, when the crowd would roar when a Mariner got out or one of the Cubs got a hit. I found myself 'hearing' Harry Caray in my head calling the game - especially at the end. ("Cubs win! Cubs win!")
While the game was great (except for that whole losing part), the trip home was a friggin' nightmare. Because it went extra innings, the game was over right at 5, so in addition to the ridiculous rush hour traffic on a normal day, you had 30,000 or so extra people downtown and there were accidents and road construction everywhere. Oh, and there was some huge protest (maybe immigration reform, again) downtown, too. It was the perfect storm for gridlock.

MEANWHILE, AT QWEST FIELD: Walking into the game today, I glanced over at neighboring Qwest Field, home to the Seahawks and the Sounders, and saw two people up on the roof, painting/waterproofing it. Talk about a big job! Can you spot the workers?